The earliest electronic cigarette can be traced to Herbert A. Gilbert, who in 1963 patented a device described as “a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette” that involved “replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air.” U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,819. This device heated the nicotine solution and produced steam. It was never commercialized.
Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, is credited with the invention of the modern electronic cigarette. In 2003, he came up with the idea of using a piezoelectric ultrasound-emitting element to vaporize a pressurized jet of liquid containing nicotine diluted in a propylene glycol solution. This design produces a smoke-like vapor that can be inhaled and provides a vehicle for nicotine delivery into the bloodstream via the lungs. He also proposed using propylene glycol to dilute nicotine and placing it in a disposable plastic cartridge which serves as a liquid reservoir and mouthpiece.
The electronic cigarette (“e-cigarette”) continued to evolve from the first generation three-part device. In 2006, the “cartomizer” (an amalgamation of cartridge and atomizer) was invented by British entrepreneurs Umer and Tariq Sheikh of XL Distributors. This is a mechanism which integrates the heating coil into the liquid chamber. The new device was launched in the United Kingdom in 2007 and is now widely adopted by the majority of ‘cigalike’ brands. The grant of the United Kingdom patent for the “cartomizer” was made in February 2013. UK Patent No. GB 2,465,247.
Standard vaporizing devices are comprised of four main parts: the battery, the atomizer, the atomizer base, and the atomizer cover. The atomizer has a bowl (called atomizer bowl or ceramic bowl), and the atomizer base connects to the battery. The atomizer base attaches the atomizer to the battery and provides the power bridge from the battery into the atomizer. When a user inhales or when user presses a button, a microprocessor signals the battery to charge the atomizer.
Vaporizing devices work by using a battery to power a small heating element in the atomizer which heats essential oils, and/or solid concentrates such as wax and dry herbs. The tip of the vaporizing device is placed in the user's mouth. The user's inhale breath allows air to flow through the atomizer which in turn creates vapor or an aerosol out of the essential oils and/or solid concentrates that are heated and vaporized by the atomizer.
In standard vaporizing devices, to create this aerosol or vapor, air flows through the center of the atomizer bowl, and this air typically travels from between the battery and the atomizer base, or through the side of the base, to a hole in the center of the atomizer base, to the atomizer through the center of the atomizer bowl. The problem with this is that, usually, with very little use, the hole which runs through the center of the atomizer bowl gets clogged up by oils or solid concentrates, or burnt remnants thereof, thereby blocking the hole and obstructing or preventing air flow through the hole. Many times oils will leak through this hole in the atomizer down to the top of the battery where eventually this oil will seep into the battery and cause failure of the battery.
Thus, there is a need for improvement on the efficiency of the current method for delivery of the aerosol or vapor to the user. The present invention provides a new way for air to enter the vaporizing device and more effectively flow over the atomizer to provide a more efficient manner for the aerosol or vapor to reach the user's mouth, while simultaneously cooling the aerosol or vapor during delivery. This vortex also cools down the atomizer allowing for a hotter-running atomizer to work.